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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25593994">The Secrets We Keep</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/War_of_Stars/pseuds/War_of_Stars'>War_of_Stars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Mutual Pining, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Politics, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:28:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,317</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25593994</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/War_of_Stars/pseuds/War_of_Stars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko’s new friend is some bald boy named Aang with strange markings, which eight year old Azula ordinarily wouldn’t care about, if said <em>friend</em> didn’t keep interrupting her firebending lessons.</p><p>Aang is the Avatar, but she doesn’t know that. </p><p>Or, in a palace swirling with political intrigue, power-hungry royals and abandoned children, Aang is the one that teaches Azula how to <em>fly.</em></p><p>REPOSTED</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang/Azula (Avatar), Azula &amp; Ozai (Avatar), Azula &amp; Ursa (Avatar), Azula &amp; Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>198</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Secrets We Keep</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It starts when Roku defeats Sozin.</p><p>He escapes an island overflowing with volcanic ash, confronting and overcoming his old friend.</p><p>Most importantly, Roku lives, and Avatar Aang is born a hundred years later than he should’ve been.</p><p>Unfortunately, the Fire Nation royal family remains as ambitious as ever.</p>
<hr/><p>Azula will remember the moment she first saw him for years to come. </p><p>She’s coming back from her firebending lesson with Master Kunyo, a skip in her eight-year-old step as she walks down a paved path through her mother’s luscious gardens, spiderflies fluttering about in the air, a fire ferret brushing up against her leg as it chased a mongoose lizard slithering away. </p><p>Azula wonders if she still has time to sneak into her grandfather’s meeting with the Air Nomads, when hushed whispers draw her attention. She hears Zuko’s voice first, and it’s clearly agitated, so naturally she investigates. It’s rare that Zuko sounds that irritated without Azula provoking him. </p><p>Surrounded by mother’s jasmine flowers, she sees a boy with a smoothly shaven head, bright grey eyes excitedly taking in everything around him as he stands opposite to her brother. He’s a peasant child, one of the few she’s ever seen, and the sight briefly takes her aback. The strange boy is dressed in plain butterscotch robes with crimson cotton sleeves, marking him as an Air Nomad. The corners of his mouth upturn wider when he sees her approaching.</p><p>Odd. While she’d been thinking of sneaking into her grandfather’s meeting, apparently this boy had sneaked out.

</p><p>She smirks back at Bald Boy, for an entirely different reason. The only children Azula and Zuko are allowed to be around are noble ones, and this peasant boy was clearly not one of them. 

</p><p>Her brother’s going to be in <em>so</em> much trouble.</p><p>“Come on Zuzu, won’t you introduce me to your new friend?” 

</p><p>Zuko recognizes the taunt in her words, his frown deepening, but the strange boy did not. He beams, as if delighted at the prospect of making a new friend.</p><p>“He’s not my friend,” Zuko grumbles. “I don’t even know who he is, or how he got here, and I’ve been trying to get him to leave for the <em>past ten minutes</em> before the guards catch him.”</p><p>She arches an eyebrow, turning to the boy. “You’re an Air Nomad, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you be with the other monks meeting the Firelord?”</p><p>He gives her a toothy grin. “I got kinda bored, so I thought I’d come here! I promise I won’t bother anyone, I just wanted to play with the turtleducks!” </p><p>He picks up one of the creatures her mother and brother were so fond of, holding out the sopping wet turtleduck as if expecting her to pet it. She wrinkles her nose. </p><p>“No thanks.”</p><p>He smiles, completely unfazed. </p><p>She puffs out her tiny chest and raises her head in an imitation of her father. Clearly, someone needs to teach this lowly boy a little respect. </p><p>“I am Princess Azula. You can also call me your highness, or my lady, if you <em>prefer</em>.” Internally, Azula high-fived herself. Prefer is a big word, father had only taught it to her yesterday, and Azula likes using big words. People always seemed more impressed when she does.</p><p>“Whatever you say, Princess M’lady Your Highness,” the monk boy responds in an overly formal tone, grinning cheekily as he gives her a deep bow. </p><p>Azula’s head explodes.</p><p>“It’s not all three, <em>Bald Boy</em>! You have to pick one!” She stamps her foot. Somehow she’d run into the one boy stupider than Zuzu. </p><p>Bald Boy bursts out laughing, and even her brother snorts. </p><p>“But I like all three of them! I <em>can’t</em> just pick one.”</p><p>Before she can say anything else, the boy interrupts, “I think I have to go now, but it was really nice meeting both of you! Maybe I’ll see you two again sometime!” </p><p>He runs away, as she and Zuko gape in silence.</p><p>Peasant children were <em>odd</em>. No wonder father didn’t allow his kids to interact with them.</p><p>It’s only later that she realizes she never got the boy’s name.</p>
<hr/><p>The next time, <em>he</em> sees <em>her</em>. </p><p>Azula is only three hours into her firebending practice, her arms slightly sore from the effort as she closes her eyes, performing her first advanced kata to perfection. </p><p>Then, she hears the clapping.</p><p>“Woah. You’re <em>really</em> good.”</p><p>She whirls around, ready for an attack from every direction (be as swift as a winged lemur, her teacher had told her), and Bald Boy stares down at her from where he hangs upside down in a nearby moon peach tree.</p><p>“You’re not supposed to be here.”</p><p>He shrugs, swinging himself right side up. </p><p>“Zuko and I were playing near the fire lilies, do you wanna play with us?”</p><p>She let out a sigh of frustration. “I’m practicing my bending, Bald Boy.”</p><p>“But you’re tired,” he points out. “Why don’t you just take a break princess?”</p><p>“I’m not supposed to play with peasants like you and Zuko isn’t either. I’m a <em>princess</em>. Father says our kind doesn’t mix with yours.”</p><p>He blinks. “That’s pretty dumb.”</p><p>“Get out! Or I’ll call the guards on you.” </p><p>Bald Boy hesitates. “Are you sure?”</p><p>She turns around, yelling at the top of her lungs, “GUARD!” </p><p>By the time the guard arrives, Bald Boy is gone, and the only sign he was ever there in the first place is a single jasmine flower he had somehow snuck into her hair.</p>
<hr/><p>The third time, she finally gets his name. Azula is practicing again, this time near the bamboo, and he emerges from tall green strands to ask her if she wants to join them again. </p><p>This time, she decides to wait and get a little more information out of him so the guards will know exactly who to arrest.</p><p>“Why are you here? I thought only the council of monks were visiting my grandfather anyway.”</p><p>He purses his lips, tilting his head, a sparkle in his eye. He’s come to some sort of decision, but she doesn’t know what it is. As someone who’s quite talented at reading people, this is more than a little aggravating. 

</p><p>“I’m... traveling with the Avatar. The monks thought it’d be a good idea for him to visit the Fire Nation. The Avatar has to maintain balance throughout the entire world, so he should know the people.”</p><p>She freezes. “The Avatar is here? You <em>know</em> him?”</p><p>He gives her a mischievous look. “Yeah, I know him pretty well.”</p><p>“I mean, we do share the same name.” She raises an eyebrow in incredulity. 

</p><p>“You share a name with the Avatar?”</p><p>He shrugs. “Aang is a pretty common name with the Air Nomads.”</p><p>“Aang.”</p><p>A name, at last.</p><p>“So... wanna hang out with me and Zuko?”</p><p>“No.” </p><p>This time, he flits away before she even has the chance to call the guards.<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p>He comes back, again and again, always during her firebending practice, always with the same request. Sometimes, Zuko comes too, seemingly tolerating the boy’s presence for as long as the Air Nomads will be staying in the city.</p><p>Aang’s a peasant. Father told her people like him weren’t worthy of her time, but she can’t help herself. The way he carries himself, with so much confidence and brightness, it makes her desperately wants to take him down a peg.</p><p>She’s known from an early age how to pull the strings of the people around her, get them to do what she wants, feel the way she wants them to feel.</p><p>So Azula taunts and she teases. 

</p><p>Nothing sticks. 

</p><p>He chuckles his way through every insult she throws at him, and sometimes he jabs back, but never in the mean-spirited way that <em>she</em> insults him. 

</p><p>Eight year old Azula simply finds this infuriating. </p>
<hr/><p>“Go away, Aang. I mean it.”</p><p>Azula’s in the middle of the most advanced firebending kata she’s learned yet, and she just doesn’t have time for him today.</p><p>He looks at her, oddly pensive for his age.</p><p>“Zuko told me it’s your birthday. Why are you here?”</p><p>She ignores him, twisting her foot to pivot herself into position, a blast of flames shooting up from her palms. </p><p>“I’m practicing an advanced firebending kata. Father says he’s sure I’ll perfect it by tomorrow. I’m a <em>prodigy</em>,” she brags, showing off yet another word she’d added to her already extensive vocabulary. </p><p>“Shouldn’t he be spending time with you though? I mean, it’s your <em>birthday</em>.” </p><p>She grits her teeth, shooting a small fireball his way, which he quickly ducks underneath to avoid. “Get lost, Bald Boy.”</p><p>He stares at her, his expression falling. “You know, the airbending masters told me I’m a prodigy too. They said if I keep training really hard, I might be one of the youngest airbenders to ever become a master.”</p><p>There is no pride in Aang’s voice. His eyes are more understanding than she ever thought they could be. </p><p>“You feel it too, don’t you? You feel like everyone expects so much from you, and you’re afraid to let anybody down, afraid that you’re not a prodigy at all, just a <em>failure</em>.”</p><p>Azula gapes. In a single sentence, he has summed up her nine years of living. 

</p><p>She doesn’t know what to say, as he walks towards her until he’s right in front of her.

</p><p>“You’ve pretty much mastered the kata, Princess. It couldn’t hurt to take a little break, could it? Me and Zuko were thinking of chasing the fireflies!” The smile is back on his face, warm and inviting as he takes her hand in his and tugs her to the other side of the gardens. </p><p>Azula should be calling for the guards by now. 

</p><p>She doesn’t, this time.</p>
<hr/><p>Azula grows accustomed to his interruptions. She still doesn’t <em>like</em> them, obviously, and still pokes fun at him whenever she can, but the jabs aren’t as vindictive as they had once been.</p><p>She has other friends, Mai and Ty Lee, but no one quite understands the part of the prodigy quite like Aang. Not even Ozai. </p><p>Aang is also the one that gets them all to play together in mock bending tournaments. 

</p><p>Mai and Ty Lee team up to compensate for their lack of bending, and the other three benders all take one corner of the room, gusts of wind and miniature fireballs flying through the air. 

</p><p>It’s <em>fun</em>.

</p><p>She never realized how <em>fun</em> bending could be, flames emitting from her with a flick of her wrist. As per usual, it’s the two of <em>them</em> left in the fight, the most powerful benders, her fire burning brighter with every breeze he sends to snuff it out until she finally claims victory, Zuko groaning as he claps his friend on the back. Her brother was used to losing to her by now, so he’d probably been hoping for Aang to win this time around.</p><p>Grudgingly, Azula admits that Aang seems to have a talent for making nearly any activity fun. She’s pretty sure he would find a way to make watching paint dry the event of the year.</p><p>It doesn’t mean she likes him now. She’s just... tolerating him.</p>
<hr/><p>They both love pranks, for two entirely different reasons. 

</p><p>Azula loves bathing in the satisfaction that her opponent will never rise from the ashes of their shame and humiliation. 

</p><p>Aang just thinks pranks are fun.</p><p>Thus, the great prank war begins. </p><p>It’s a conflict that leaves broken furniture, terrified servants, food-splattered walls and utter destruction in its wake. Neither side will concede victory. </p><p>Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee grit their teeth, their hair dripping with the leftover pieces of a fruit pie. </p><p>“Aang, just let her <em>win</em> already!” </p><p>“Not a chance!” he grins gleefully, launching another fruit pie at the magnolia tree Azula sits beneath, but she’s far too quick and darts away without a scratch.

</p>
<hr/><p>Days later, Zuko and Azula kneel before their father, their heads bowed as they wait for him to speak.</p><p>“Azula, there are... rumors going around that your brother is spending his time with street urchins. Tell me, daughter, is there any truth to these claims?”</p><p>Ozai loves this. Pitting them against each other to see which one will come out on top, which one is worthy of him and the great legacy he plans to leave behind. </p><p>He expects Azula to rat her brother out since she’s never given him any indication she’d do otherwise. Zuko stares straight ahead, but his fingers are trembling.</p><p>The rules are there for a reason. </p><p>“I haven’t seen anything, father,” she says sweetly.</p><p>Ozai seems taken aback by her response, but he recovers quickly. He knows Azula would never dare lie to him. </p><p>“A baseless rumor, then. You’re both dismissed.”</p><p>They walk out of the room quickly, not wanting to linger. Father is a busy man, after all. 

</p><p>The door shuts behind them. Silently, Azula nods towards her brother. </p><p>Zuko’s secret has now become hers.</p>
<hr/><p>They bicker constantly. Aang’s worldview couldn’t be different from her own, and as a powerful bender herself, Azula feels a sort of responsibility to educate the peasant on the proper way to do things and interact with those who are... less gifted.</p><p>Ty Lee giggles in the middle of one particularly memorable fight. “You and Aang fight like my parents.”</p><p>She pushed her back into a tree with a fireball, but Ty Lee easily leaps out of the way.</p><p>From the corner of her eye, Azula can see the corners of Mai’s mouth upturn into the faintest of smiles.</p><p>She needs new friends.</p>
<hr/><p>“You’re sh-sheltered,” she says finally, stumbling a bit on her newest word. “You can’t be this stupid if you’re going to survive in the real world.”

</p><p>He gives her an incredulous look. “<em>I’m</em> shell-sheltered? Have you ever hung out with anyone except your family, Mai, me, and Ty Lee? Besides going to Ember Island, have you ever even left the palace walls?” </p><p>Her throat is dry. “...No.”</p><p>“Would ya like to?”</p><p>She frowns. “What do you mean?” </p><p>They climb one of the moon peach trees, and at the top there’s an orange glider resting on the highest branch.</p><p>“I can fly us over the wall,” he whispered. </p><p>It’s on the tip of her tongue to refuse the offer. She isn’t supposed to leave the palace without permission. </p><p>However, there’s a burning curiosity in Azula’s belly that begs to be sated. What were the people she would one day rule really like? What would the city be like, when she wasn’t being carried everywhere on a palanquin? </p><p>“Alright. Let’s go.”</p><p>He hooks his hands around one of the wooden handholds, turning to her and gesturing for her to do the same on the other one.</p><p>“Hold on tight, Princess M’lady!” </p><p>Before she can even begin to berate him, he kicks off, a large gust of wind sending them soaring into the air, higher and higher as the gardens becomes a tiny blip and they cross the palace walls, leaving her home behind for the city outside. </p><p>It’s... it’s exhilarating. Nothing but the wind, roaring beneath her, peasants walking about like little specks along the cobblestone streets. Azula had never realized how small the palace really was, how small <em>everything</em> was from up here. </p><p>She feels so <em>powerful</em>. 

</p><p>It feels like freedom in a way Azula had never known before, like nothing really mattered because it was all so far away. </p><p>She never wanted to come down. </p><p>He takes her back to the palace eventually, breathless laughter accompanying the moment they touch down on the soft blades of grass.</p><p>“That was incredible!”</p><p>“Azula!” </p><p>Her mother’s eyes are fraught with concern and anger as she approaches the pair. “Where have you been? Your brother and I have been searching for you for the past half hour! I was about to call your father.”</p><p>“I went flying with my friend.” She doesn’t need to worry about mother scolding her for hanging out with strange peasant boys because mother’s met the group of Air Nomads staying in the city with the Avatar, and she isn’t as strict as father about these things. </p><p>Ursa finally seems to notice the boy standing next to her, her mouth slightly agape in surprise.</p><p>“This is Aang. He’s an airbender, but he isn’t the Avatar, he just has the same name as him,” she told her mother, matter-of-factly. </p><p>Ursa’s expression morphs into one of curious delight instantly. 

</p><p>She giggles. “Is that so?”</p><p>“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Aang.” Her eyes sparkle with mirth, and he gives her a shy, embarrassed smile. </p><p>“Why don’t you join us for tea?” </p><p>Internally, Azula groans. She <em>hates</em> teatime, but Aang nods eagerly so she’s dragged along. Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee are already seated in the pavilion by the time they make it back, all looking relieved to see them in one piece. </p><p>It actually isn’t so bad with him, though. Aang tells them stories about growing up at the Southern Air Temple, and sometimes he’ll share a tidbit about the Avatar after Azula pressures him.</p><p>They all stare at each other while sipping their tea though, Mai, Ty Lee, Zuko, Aang, and mother, exchanging glances and sharing some inside joke that apparently she’s not privy to. Her brother in particular looks like he’s trying very hard not to laugh, flushing a little as Mai gently knocks him in the arm to get him to shut up.</p><p>Azula huffs. </p><p>People were so <em>weird</em>. </p><p>“Don’t be so focused on the big picture that you miss the obvious, Azula,” Ursa murmurs at the end, idly patting her on the head. </p><p>It’s the last good memory she ever has with the woman. </p>
<hr/><p>All good things must come to an end. </p><p>The group of Air Nomads depart after spending the year in the city. She’s a bit disappointed she never ran into the Avatar, but shockingly she’s more bothered by the fact that Aang is leaving for good. </p><p>She’d gotten used to the boy’s interruptions and antics. </p><p>“I’ll visit you guys all the time. Like every weekend!” Aang promises. </p><p>She doesn’t quite believe him, and acts entirely unaffected by his departure. It hardly matters, for she has Mai and Ty Lee, and even Zuko to whom she’s grown somewhat closer to in the past year. </p><p>Azula doesn’t know what to think when Aang pops out of the moon peach tree a week later disguised as a servant, this time with a baby air bison, ready for another round of catch-the-turtleducks.

</p>
<hr/><p>Ozai is going to kill Zuko. Literally.</p><p>Father is going to kill her <em>brother</em>.</p><p>Everything is a flurry of panicked words and a hundred secret plans to sneak him out of the palace whirring through her brain.</p><p>By the next morning, her brother is alive, her father is Firelord, and her mother is gone.<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p> Zuko latches onto Aang immediately during his weekend visits, as well as Uncle Iroh. It was pathetic, really, how desperately her brother needed <em>someone</em> after their mother abandoned them. </p><p>Azula doesn’t need anyone. She barely reacts, just like her father. </p><p>Still, she’s careful with her brother in the immediate aftermath. He’s taking it all <em>very</em> poorly. 

</p><p><em>Zuko points to tattered bedroom coverings and ripped up silk dresses and says she isn’t taking it well either, but she ignores him. She isn’t upset, she </em>isn’t, <em>because that would be caring and caring is weakness.</em></p>
<hr/><p>“It’s not wrong to miss your mother.” Sometimes it’s easy to forget Aang is only eight years old. He’s so childish, but he has these moments that Azula’s heard her mother call “a wisdom beyond his years.”</p><p>She immediately shuts out the thought along with her face, burning the flower bush in front of her into ashes. </p><p>She burns everything around her while practicing her new katas, every stupid jasmine flower that reminds her of Ursa, wishing she could just burn the whole <em>garden</em> down. </p><p>For some inexplicable reason, Azula can’t. </p><p>He watches, silent and solemn. </p><p>“I’m sorry. She seemed really nice.”</p><p>He reaches out, arms wide open and gets a fireball to the face for his troubles.</p><p>He dodges, wiping his soot-covered forehead, and simply steps forward again, unrelenting as he hugs her. </p><p>She bursts into tears.</p>
<hr/><p>Their mother’s departure is an open wound for a long, <em>long</em> time. </p><p>Aang helps, though. He makes a suddenly grim palace seem a bit brighter. She understands why Zuko thinks the Air Nomad is his best friend now; the shadows seem just a little farther away in the face of the enduringly optimistic boy’s smile.</p><p>Sometimes she likes letting the darkness in, likes hearing the sizzling crack of another rosebush in her mother’s garden being blown to bits, but other times she surprises herself by how much she craves her friend’s light.</p><p>Mostly, she loves <em>flying</em>.</p><p>They wear matching orange and red masks as they fly low over the city rooftops. Aang allows Azula to take over the steering sometimes, and she gets a little overzealous, knocking into a man whose arms are filled to the brim with cabbages.

</p><p> “Damn airbenders!” the man wailed, picking up the knocked over vegetables. Aang and Azula burst out laughing, even though the former sends a gust of air to place them back in the man’s arms.

</p><p>In a palace that has become all too suffocating, Ozai pushing her harder than ever, Aang and his glider are the ones that let her <em>breathe</em>.</p>
<hr/><p>They’re walking along city streets during one memorable escapade when they stumble across a group of children their age playing Kuai Ball. </p><p>“Hey! Can we play?” Aang asks before she can stop him. </p><p>The children look at each other uncomfortably. “Umm, we kind of already have the maximum amount of people we need for the game.”</p><p>Azula raises an eyebrow. These children would dare reject a princess? “We order you to include us in your game!”</p><p>One of the boys gives her a look of disbelief. “Excuse me?”</p><p>She draws herself up. “Do you know who I am? Do you know what I can do to you?” Her hands dance with flames.</p><p>The boy looks intimidated, but stares back at her defiantly nonetheless. “You’re not welcome here.”</p><p>She’s about to give him a piece of her mind when Aang steps forward, cutting her off. </p><p>“We’re sorry if we were a little rude, before. We’d really like to play with Kuai Ball with you, I’ve never played and it looks like a lot of fun! It’s okay if the court’s too full though.”</p><p>The boy relaxes a bit at Aang’s words, but still shoots her a wary glance. </p><p>“I guess you guys can stick around for the next round, if you want. We can rotate players.” </p><p>They go back to their game soon enough, and Azula turns around to stare at Aang.</p><p>“How did you do that?”</p><p>“Do what?”</p><p>“Get them to play with us. I tried yelling at him and he just doubled down.”</p><p>Aang scratches his head. “Umm... I was nice to them?” </p><p>If it were anyone else, Azula would be furious, sure that he was making fun of her. However, Aang is nothing but sincere, looking genuinely confused, as if he didn’t even understand her question.</p><p>She purses her lips. She’d never realized there were other ways to get people to do what you wanted that could work as well as fear and deception.</p><p>Azula supposed it was something to keep in mind, if she ever needed to use an... <em>alternative</em> tactic. At any rate, father had said every method of manipulation was a valid one, hadn’t he?

</p>
<hr/><p>“You have to listen to me! I’m older than you.”</p><p>Aang crosses his arms, mirroring Azula’s stance. “Only by a year.”</p><p>“A year and a <em>half</em>,” she emphasized. The half made all the difference.</p><p>Zuko groans. “Come on Azula! Me and Aang both want to play tag. Besides, I’m two years older than <em>you</em>,” he said smugly.</p><p>“But hide and explode is so much better, Zuzu! Here, let me show you!” Zuko yelps, glaring as he was forced to duck to avoid an errant fireball thrown his way. </p><p>“Prince Zuko! Princess Azula! It’s time for your firebending lessons!”</p><p>She and Zuko quickly shove Aang into a nearby moon flower bush as Master Kunyo approaches them. </p><p>“Ah, there you are! Come on you two, we don’t want to be late!”</p><p>Azula is better at hiding her sigh of disappointment than Zuko is, and Aang barely makes an effort at all. 

</p><p>Master Kunyo shoots the nearby bush a strange look. For a second, he could’ve sworn it <em>breathed</em>.</p>
<hr/><p>She’s thirteen years old and careless. It was her first firebending lesson with Ozai and she’d been drunk on her own confidence — her father had started giving her lessons before her older brother, after all. The burn on her lower leg teaches her never to be that overconfident again. Especially not around father.</p><p>She limps back to her room, wincing as a servant hurriedly brings her a few bandages to wrap it with. </p><p>It’s not too bad, actually. It won’t even leave a scar. </p><p>She is her father’s favorite, after all. </p><p>The bedroom door abruptly opens and slams shut, a fleet-footed boy sneaking into her chambers.</p><p>“Hey Azula! I’m ba—“</p><p>Aang stops. And stares.</p><p>“What — why — how did you get that?”</p><p>“Oh, I was practicing my bending with father and got a little distracted,” she shrugs, applying the medical salve carefully over the wound.</p><p>“Your <em>father</em> did that to you?” He looks horrified.</p><p>“Azula... that’s not okay.”</p><p>She frowns, looking away. “It was <em>my</em> mistake, Aang. I shouldn’t have lost my focus.”</p><p>He shakes his head vigorously, sitting next to her on the bed. “When I make a mistake, the monks don’t hit me for it, Princess. They explain what I did wrong, and let me try again. No parent should <em>burn</em> their child.” He takes the bandages from her and starts wrapping her ankle with steady, soft palms. </p><p>She remembers this moment, because it’s the very first time she sees fury in his eyes. The anger isn’t for her, though, so she isn’t afraid. She could never be afraid of Aang, who is too gentle, too kind to ever hurt her. 

</p><p>In others, it seems like a weakness, but he makes it look like a strength.</p><p>No one has ever really been angry on Azula’s behalf before. She doesn’t know what to think of it.</p><p>“Run away with me.” </p><p>It’s also the first time he asks her <em>this</em>, and little does she know it won’t be the last. </p><p>She’s too surprised to respond immediately.</p><p>“I could take you back to the Southern Air Temple! You, me, and Zuko, I bet we could break out of here, I mean I break in and out all the time!” His eyes are alight with a fervor, grasping her hand. </p><p>“I could get you away. We’d go to the temple and go kite flying, and I can show how you to play airball!” They’re the entirely innocent words of a boy who still doesn’t understand how her world works. </p><p>“No, Aang.”</p><p>He looks hurt. “Why not?”</p><p>“I’m a Princess of the Fire Nation. My place is <em>here</em>.” Azula understands, in part, what he’s trying to say about her father, but she is no damsel in distress for him to sweep in and rescue. Besides, they are <em>children</em>. There is no place on earth they could go where the Fire Nation wouldn’t find them, and she certainly isn’t going to run away for a minor burn, of all things.</p><p>She is not the type of girl to shirk her responsibilities.</p><p>He sighs, placing a finger on the wound, as if willing it to close up. He’s a bit upset, but she knows Aang won’t force her on the issue.</p><p>At the end of the day, Ozai still has a hold on Azula and her brother that both struggle to shake. A hold that has only gotten worse since their mother’s disappearance.</p>
<hr/><p>Aang may be gone most of the time, but Zuko and Azula have gotten in the habit of practicing their bending together, re-creating their little mini tournaments even without him. </p><p>“I wonder if the Avatar is better than our Aang at airbending?” She asks her brother once, in the middle of practice. 

</p><p>Azula doubts it. Aang was good enough to be a master at <em>twelve</em>. He’d been showing them his new tattoos excitedly, a light blue arrow on his forehead and other streaks of blue running down his arms.</p><p>“What do you mean our Aang?” Zuko asks her quizzically. </p><p>“Wait... he hasn’t told you yet? You still don’t know?” Her brother’s eyes are comically wide. </p><p>“How could you not know? You’re... you’re Azula!”</p><p>“Know what?” she snaps, tired of this game. She’d been up for hours working on the latest kata.</p><p>He grins. “Are you kidding? I finally know something you don’t! There’s no way I’m telling you anything!” </p><p>Zuko runs away, howling in laughter, and she rolls her eyes. Her brother was such a moron sometimes.</p>
<hr/><p>She doesn’t latch onto Ozai as much as the years go by. </p><p>She has Aang.</p><p>She respects her father, but not as much as she might’ve if she’d never met Aang, if she’d never had someone who showed her what it actually meant to <em>care</em> for someone.</p><p>Ozai doesn’t give a damn about her, only what she can do, and it doesn’t bother her as much as she thinks it should.</p><p>Still, he is her father. The very first person to ever look at her like she was <em>more</em>. The very first to call her a prodigy. There will always be a part of her that is desperate for his praise, his approval, and the power that he can give her, no matter how diluted it is.</p>
<hr/><p>Firelord Ozai is an ambitious man. Even more ambitious than Firelord Azulon, who had already been making preparations for war. It was the reason why the Avatar had been discovered so early, after all. </p><p>Ozai has always been that way, which is why she’s not surprised when he starts including her in military meetings. It becomes abundantly clear that her father is thinking of expansion, even if he never says it outright.</p><p>Azula quietly begins preparing herself, pushing herself harder and harder during her lessons. </p><p>It would not be a bloodless conquest.</p>
<hr/><p>Nonetheless, she finds time for Aang, Mai, Ty Lee and her brother. Sometimes it’s all five of them together, and other times it’s just her and the Air Nomad, soaring above the rooftops. </p><p>They ignore the rumblings of a war that she knows have reached the Air Nation’s ears by now. Rumor has it the Avatar was speeding up his training a bit. </p><p>For now, though, there are only taunts that have grown more gentle over the years, and laughter as they glide through a starry night.</p>
<hr/><p>“Aang’s getting a lot better with his waterbending,” her brother remarks idly.</p><p>“You mean airbending,” she corrects, sending another blast of flames Zuko’s way. </p><p>“... Right.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Run away with me,” he asks her again. 

</p><p>This time, it’s entirely unprovoked. They’re fifteen and fourteen respectively, still only teenagers, so of course Azula says no. Besides, as she told him before, she is a Princess of the Fire Nation. She is no coward, and she has nothing to run from.</p>
<hr/><p>Ozai pushes her harder and harder. Blue flames and lighting erupt from her palms, which she learns to use with a deadly precision. He is honing her into the weapon he needs her to be, a tool of destruction for the Fire Nation. </p><p>At this point, she knows the upcoming war is inevitable. </p><p>Azula makes herself forget it, though, when she’s with the others. When she’s with <em>him</em>.</p><p>Aang will be on the Avatar’s side. Never in a hundred years will Azula betray the Fire Nation, so Aang <em>will</em> be her enemy, and she doesn’t know if she can handle that. </p><p>She watches with an uneasy grin as her blast of fire sends him tumbling back to the ground, hands raised in surrender. After so many years of fighting him, she’s gotten used to predicting his moves.</p>
<hr/><p>It occurs in an instant. Azula and Aang are flying again, and she’s looking at him from the side. There’s a racing in her heart that has nothing to do with the fact that they’re hundreds of feet up in the air.</p><p>She doesn’t really know how it happens.</p><p>All she knows is that Aang is <em>freedom</em>, is prank wars with fruit pies and bending matches and breathless laughter all rolled into one.</p><p>Azula is seventeen years old when she falls in love.</p>
<hr/><p>She doesn’t tell Aang, of course. Azula is a master of hiding her emotions, and it’s easy enough to act like nothing’s changed between them. </p><p>Matters are complicated enough with the more aggressive actions being undertaken by the Fire Nation, which she already hears the Air Nation and the Avatar denouncing. Their conversations are almost always light, focusing on the safer topics, even if there is a new undercurrent of tension that wasn’t there before.</p><p>Sometimes, though, she’ll catch a lingering gaze, and she’ll wonder...</p>
<hr/><p>Father hosts an extravagant party for his birthday that year. Countless nobles from all over the nation are invited. </p><p>This is a special year. </p><p>Zuko stands awkwardly off to the side with Mai, because of course he does. She rolls her eyes and exchanges pleasantries with some of the lords on the higher end of the spectrum, fishing for their loyalties and pertinent information, when someone behind her clears his throat.</p><p>“Princess M’lady Your Highness, it’s an <em>honor</em> to meet your acquaintance.”</p><p>She whips around, and Aang is standing right there, a hood covering his tattoo and shaved head. He’s been visiting less, so it’s been a while since she last saw him. He must‘ve borrowed his fancy red robes from her brother.</p><p>“Pleasure’s all mine,” she murmurs, breaking away from the group and leaning in towards him. “What are you doing here?”</p><p>“I talked to Zuko, and I came to see you,” he whispers back. “I — Azula, I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to come back.”</p><p>Ah. He’s heard about the escalation, then. It seems the topic they’ve been avoiding for so long will finally come to the forefront.</p><p>He grasps her hands in his, rough callouses rubbing against smooth skin.</p><p>“Run away with me.” 

</p><p>There is something different about it this time. While the phrase on its own might’ve sounded like they were planning to elope, Azula had known all the previous times he’d asked her that it had been purely platonic, a friend offering her a way out. An entirely innocent gesture. 

</p><p>This time, there’s a mercurial intensity in his eyes, a spark that hadn’t been there before. 

</p><p>The war drums are growing louder, and they both somehow understand that this is the last time, that the next time they meet they’ll likely be on different sides of the conflict. This is her last chance.

</p><p>Azula shakes her head. “I would have to give up my throne, and my father would kill you.”

</p><p>“I’m not afraid of your father.”

</p><p> “You should be.” Ozai was not a Firelord to be trifled with. He <em>may</em> not kill her, but Aang would be dead in seconds if he caught them. As powerful as Aang is, he is just an airbender, and no match for Ozai’s renown firebending prowess.

</p><p>Aang never gets the chance to counter. 

</p><p>The shadow of her father falls across them both, Ozai looking faintly displeased as he approaches them. 

</p><p>“Azula, I don’t believe I’ve met your companion.”

</p><p>“Father, this is Lord Kuzon, of the Shuhon province.” Her lie is effortless. </p><p>“Lord Kuzon. I’ve never heard of you before.” </p><p><em>You’re not important enough to be seen with my daughter.</em> The thought goes unspoken. </p><p>“My family is a small one, Firelord.” He gives Ozai a shallow bow.</p><p>“Princess Azula.”</p><p>Aang kisses her hand for just a few more seconds than is technically appropriate in high society. She’s not sure if he simply doesn't know or if he did it on purpose. 

</p><p>Her breath catches nonetheless. Ozai’s eyes narrow in disapproval at the presumptuous “lord.”</p><p>She watches him leave with steely determination nevertheless. This is inevitable, but a part of her longs to pull him back. One more night flying under a starry sky, one last proper conversation. </p><p>Still, there’s a fire in her friend’s eyes as he walks away, and she gets the feeling that something just happened which flew over her head entirely.</p>
<hr/><p>Zuko is not quite as skilled as Azula, and he’s got a soft heart, her brother. It costs him. </p><p>Azula keeps a fixed smile on her face for father as Zuko gets his face burned off. Really, what had he been thinking, speaking up like that against a war? Didn’t he understand that was what father had been planning for for nearly a decade now?</p><p>She’s happy when he’s sent away on an impossible mission to defeat the Avatar a few days before their planned strike on an Earth Kingdom city, a foolhardy quest that gets him out of her father’s line of firing.</p>
<hr/><p>They do not launch a strike against the Earth Kingdom and the walls of Ba Sing Se. </p><p>Azula’s head is spinning. She had been so sure of their target, so sure that all they would be doing was launching an experimental strike against the walled city, but father had changed it without ever bothering to inform her. </p><p>The generals clink their wine glasses to the destruction of the Southern Air Temple.</p><p>It’s the first shot of the war. Azula doesn’t know how they pull it off without sky bison, only that they do. She hears the phrase “no survivors” ringing in her head. </p><p>All those <em>people</em>. All <em>his</em> people.</p><p>Days after she finds love, she loses it to death.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey guys! I know I posted/deleted this fic a while back, but I reposted it after some of you guys asked about it on my other fic, and am currently still working on the next part! Let me know if it’s still something y’all are interested in seeing!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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